Apple's iCloud user base breaks 250 million

During yesterday's Q1 2013 earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook mentioned several times that the iCloud storage service now has more than 250 million users.

That's not particularly surprising, since signing up for a free iCloud account is part of the setup process when you purchase any new Apple product. What is surprising is how quickly the service has grown, jumping from 85 million in January of 2012 to triple that number in 2013.

The company is investing in the data centers used for iCloud. Part of the discussion with analysts yesterday afternoon dealt with capital expenditures, with Apple planning to spend money on three primary targets -- retail stores, equipment for suppliers and data centers.

[Source: TUAW]

Apogee Electronics introduces all new “ONE”, audio interface & microphone featuring iPad & Mac compatibility, upgraded sound quality and new Maestro control app for iOS

Anaheim, California, January 24, 2013 - Apogee Electronics is pleased to introduce the completely redesigned ONE, a 2 IN x 2 OUT USB audio interface and microphone. The all new ONE is the first studio quality audio interface and microphone that makes a direct digital connection to Apple’s iPad (iPhone, iPod touch) and Mac. ONE features Apogee’s Maestro control software, iOS device charging, optional battery power for portable recording with iPad and professional sound quality. ONE is the all-in-one solution that makes it easy for musicians, songwriters, recording engineers, film makers, audiophiles, and anyone else to enjoy professional sound quality on iPad and Mac.

ONE offers three input options; a built-in omni-directional condenser microphone, XLR input for dynamic, condenser or ribbon microphones, and 1/4” instrument input for electric guitars, keyboards or any instrument with an electric pick-up. An upgrade from the original design, ONE now has the ability to record two inputs simultaneously (instrument plus built-in microphone or external microphone). The updated AD/DA converters and mic preamps deliver best-in-class, studio quality sound and allow you to capture and playback your recordings with incredible clarity and detail.

ONE’s audiophile quality headphone amplifier/DAC is a favorite for enhanced music listening on Mac. Now ONE delivers the same hi-fi quality sound to iPod touch, iPhone and iPad users for listening to streaming radio and music libraries with incredible clarity and detail. ONE’s built-in condenser microphone is a unique feature allowing anyone to record with incredible results and without the need for an external microphone. This paired with the option of connecting to iPod touch, iPhone or iPad and battery power enables studio-quality recordings to be created in any location. “We have completely redesigned ONE, incorporating highly anticipated features; iPad compatibility, simultaneous recording of guitar and a microphone, enhanced sound quality, and a much desired metal chassis,” says Apogee CEO and Co-Founder Betty Bennett. “This is an innovative interface, ideal for the musician who wants an all-in-one solution they can count on for ease of use and professional studio quality results, no matter where they are. We’re excited to welcome this next generation of a classic Apogee product and we know our customers will love it.” Apple’s iPad has revolutionized music creation with an intuitive touch interface and a universe of powerful and very affordable music apps. As a studio quality microphone and audio interface, ONE delivers key features to this new paradigm. Apogee’s Maestro software for iOS lets you control ONE’s inputs, mic preamp, outputs and set up low latency monitoring. ONE’s DC power charges iPad while in use so recording is not interrupted. The option of battery power for ONE allows for truly portable professional recording. When used with iPad or an iOS device, ONE works with any Core Audio compliant app like GarageBand, Auria and MultiTrack. For recording on a Mac, ONE works with Logic, Pro Tools, GarageBand, Ableton Live and any Mac Core Audio compliant application.

Over Two Billion iMessages Are Sent Every 24 Hours

Here’s another humungo stat Apple dropped during its earnings call on Wednesday: two billion iMessages are sent every single day. So over the course of a year, 730 billion iMessages are sent between iOS users—every Mac, iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Holy Buffalo.

Apple didn’t quite meet expectations this quarter, but that didn’t stop the company from breaking records. In addition to the impressive iMessage stat, Apple also revealed that it has sold over 500 million iOS devices, with 250 million iCloud activations up to this point. Not too shabby at all.

[Source: TechniBuffalo]

Apple TV Sells 2 Million Units in the Holiday Quarter; Still a Hobby

Apple reported today that the Apple TV streaming device sold 2 million units during the holiday quarter. When exactly will this finally qualify as a real product?

Last quarter Apple sold 1.3 million Apple TV units, and during the 2011 holiday quarter it sold 1.4 million. The 2 million it sold in this latest quarter represents a 60 percent increase, and makes it one of the top selling streaming solutions on the market. Somehow Apple still feels this product qualifies as a “hobby,” much to the confusion of folks who work in the tech industry.

Most companies would be ecstatic if its product sold 2 million units in a quarter, and a large number of them could make that the only thing they do. In the case of Apple, somehow it remains a “hobby,” a product that is not considered serious enough to be included in quarterly reports, but still gets asked about on the earnings call.

At some point Apple will have to admit this is a real product, but one has to wonder what the magical sales number is to trigger that event.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Psy’s Gangnam Style YouTube Earnings Top $8 Million

Psy’s hit pop song Gangnam Style has reportedly made more than $8 million from YouTube alone. The clip is already the most watched video on the service; it earned that title back in November when the song topped a hit from Justin Bieber. The news was made official by Google’s chief business officer Nikesh Arora following Google’s fourth quarter 2012 earnings, which were published after the markets closed on Tuesday evening.

The video currently sits with more than 1.23 billion views. To clarify a bit, Psy himself doesn’t keep the entire lot of cash. Instead, Psy and his recording partners probably took home about $4 million, Quartz said, while Google pulled in the remaining $4 million. Still, the math suggests that Psy and Google pull in a combined $0.65 per view at this point, Quartz noted.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

Mac sales fall, but iPhone and iPad keep Apple cash coming

Apple's line of Mac computers aren't selling as well as they were a year ago -- though a tumble in sales figures hasn't stopped Tim Cook and co. from earning a record amount of cash.

Divulging its earnings for the last three months of 2012, Apple revealed that it had flogged 4.1 million Macs, compared with 5.2 million in the same period the previous year.

Apple blames manufacturing constraints on its new, much thinner iMac desktop (pictured above), which may have impeded the maker of shiny gadget's ability to rake in Mac cash.

Apple isn't sure it will meet iMac demand in the first part of 2013 either, tuaw.com reports, with Tim Cook quoted as saying in an earnings call, "We're confident that we're going to significantly increase the supply, but the demand here is very strong and we are not certain that we'll achieve a supply/demand balance during the quarter."

The number of iPods sold has also dropped from 15.4 million in the last quarter of 2011, to 12.7 million in the same period last year.

Despite not every product line making Apple as much money as it has previously, the iPod-maker still posted record-busting revenue of $54.5 billion (about £34.4bn), and an eye-watering $13.1bn (roughly £8.3bn) of profit.

By comparison, Android-owner Google cleared $2.89bn (about £1.82bn) of profit in the same three months of last year, proving that when it comes to generating terrifying stacks of moolah, Apple still rules the roost.

It's earning power is down largely to the steady popularity of its mobile gadgets. Apple flogged a whopping 47.8 million iPhones in the last quarter of 2012, compared to 37 million in the same period in 2011, and 22.9 million iPads, compared with 15.4 million in the prior year. Samsung recently boasted that it had flogged 40 million Galaxy S3 units to retailers since its flagship phone went on sale six months ago.

Wall Street shuffle

Apple made $4.2bn per week in the last three months of 2012, but it wasn't enough to impress investors, who expected even greater numbers from the company. Amid concerns that Apple has lost its way, following the publication of the results nearly $47bn was wiped off the company's stock-market value.

I don't think it's unfair to say that Apple's last few product announcements have felt a tad underwhelming, but then it's hard to imagine where Apple could go with devices like the iPhone and iPad. Fingers crossed we see an exotic new product this year. Perhaps that TV everyone's been harping on about, or a car perhaps?

[Source: CNET]

Nexus 4 hitting retail shelves in Australia come Feb. 1

If you're one of the many still trying to get your hands on a Nexus 4, and happen to live in Australia, we have some good news. Starting February 1, the phone that plays hard to get will be available in retail stores across the land of Oz. The 16GB version will set you back $499 AUD (that's about $525 US) without any pesky contracts or commitments. Of course, you can also choose to get it bundled with an Optus plan for just $35 AUD (about $37 USD) a month.

The pricing isn't bad compared to retail on other unlocked phones, but is still marked up a bit over the Google Play price of $349 US. It's a case of demand setting the market price, and it's still cheaper than eBay.

[Source: AndroidCentral]

Temple Run 2 for Android now available in Google Play

Temple Run 2, the highly anticipated sequel to one of the biggest games ever, is now available in Google Play. It has all the twists and turns (and monkeys) of the original, but it's been completely redone with great new graphics, new environments, and even bigger monkeys! It's free to download (of course you can spend money via in-app purchases if that's your thing) and you can grab it at the link to the left.

I've not sat down and really played it yet, so holler if there's something we should take a look at. Of course, we'll spend some quality time sliding and jumping, then give this one a proper look. Hit the break for the official trailer.

[Source: AndroidCentral]

It Looks Like Twitter Wants People to Start Sharing Videos

Video-sharing startup, Vine, offers interesting service. Twitter buys Vine because it likes interesting service. And now Twitter CEO Dick Costolo is showing the service off, and how easy it is to share short video clips with your tweets. Is this the future of video on Twitter? It looks that way.

In October 2012, Twitter picked Vine up before it could launch its own standalone iOS app. Vine still is going to launch a standalone app, independent of Twitter, but it looks like the service is easily integrated so the two play nice. It doesn’t seem like integration goes any deeper than that, AllThingsD said. For now, the startup is going solo under Twitter’s watchful eye, allowing users to share clips up to six seconds.

No Vine launch date has been shared, but with Costolo teasing the functionality, it seems likely we’ll see an announcement sometime soon.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]

GameStick Kickstarter adds new indie dev-targeted tier, trades $250 for six months of 100% revenue

The PlayJam folks are taking another cue from the Android-powered Ouya with their own GameStick, today adding a dev-focused $250 tier to the already successful Kickstarter campaign. The twist with GameStick's dev tier is its aimed at indies, and it offers a six month window of 100 percent revenue on any games released before July 2013 (in addition to a GameStick bundle, of course). The dev version costs quite a bit more than the usual $79 asking price, but guaranteeing full revenue near launch may be a worthy tradeoff for developers looking to cash-in on early adopters (the industry standard is a 70 / 30 split, with game devs taking the larger share). Sadly, you won't get the unit any earlier than the general public; PlayJam's putting an April window on launch. The deal's only available to 250 developers -- or at least the first 250 people to buy in -- so interested parties may want to act quickly.

[Source: Engadget]

UK 4G auction kicks off today, here's how it works

Regulator Ofcom has given the green light to the UK's 4G auction plans, kicking off the first round of bidding that will see networks including Vodafone, O2 and EE splashing the cash in order to secure new chunks of spectrum.

If you're imagining a crowded auction chamber with lots of gavel-banging, your fevered imagination is a little wide of the mark. Ofcom explains that the process will involve a 'combinatorial clock' format, in which would-be buyers say how much they'd be prepared to pay for combined chunks of spectrum at set prices.

The 'clock stage', which starts today, takes place over a number of rounds, with the watchdog raising prices for bits of spectrum that are in-demand in each subsequent round.

The bidding stops when 'demand matches supply', or in other words, when the amount bidders are happy to pay has stopped climbing. Ofcom then goes through a round of supplementary bidding, in which prospective owners can give a 'best and final offer' on any bits of bandwidth on the table.

Ofcom decides how much each bidder will ultimately pay for spectrum, with each party paying the minimum amount necessary to trump competitors. Just like with eBay bidding, you wouldn't necessarily pay as much as you are ultimately prepared to pay.

In the final stage, winners bid for precise frequencies of spectrum and then finally competitors get to take home some glossy new bandwidth, with which to launch 4G services. Ofcom expects it to be "a number of weeks" before the final winners are known.

The key question currently is how much cash the auction will raise for the UK. £3.5bn is expected to be raised, but we may be in trouble if the final sum is less, as the government has already factored a £3.5bn payout into its budget predictions.

[Source: CNET]

Significant Wii U Updates Announced by Nintendo

Nintendo promised this morning in their Nintendo Direct presentation that they plan to produce two system updates this spring and summer.

As you can see in the image above, these updates will bring quicker speed to the Wii U user-interface. Users have complained about this one for a while.

The spring update will also bring the Virtual Console to the Wii U. While the full VC catalogue will not be available at launch, they will come to the Wii U in batches. The bad news? You’ll need to re-buy your old games. The good news, however, is that they’ll come at a reduced price. Re-buy NES games for $1.00 and SNES games for $1.50.

[Source: TechnoBuffalo]